A few days ago, on the social media, a mentor(?) shared the experience he had on a dinner with his protegé. It goes something like this, the protegé took the mentor to a restaurant for a dinner. One of the dishes was not good and they complained to the manager about their disappointment. Nevertheless, to his surprise, the protegé left a good tip on the table. When questioned, the protegé explained that he tipped the waiter who served them well and because he was not responsible for the taste the food!
Many a time, we tip for the food and rarely for the service on its own. We tip the servers only when we are happy with the food. We often mix the food with service to shower either our tips or abuses. The tips are quite often shared among the staff, from the waiter to the chef to the cleaner and the security guard. Abuses, however, are conveyed to the chef and once a while the chef directly gets a mouthful. How many times do we separate the outcome from the effort?
Recently, my wife made an exotic dish and despite her best efforts, the result did not meet her expectations. If it did, she would’ve earned our praise, but well the efforts were worth appreciating and I did.
We hold our feedback until we have experienced the outcome of product or the service we paid for. From tipping the waiter to writing feedback and everything in between, happens only upon experience. How many times have we appreciated anyone for their effort and not tied it up with the outcome of the effort? We praise the soldier only if they fight off adversity or sympathise upon losing a limb or life. How many of us pray for their well-being for holding the enemy at bay?
Payments and rewards have to be outcome-based, but the appreciated should be independent of the outcome. All those who are involved in any given endeavour may not be influential to affect the outcome. A counter-argument could be the non-influencers are paid for their efforts regardless of the result and the influencers bear the risk or reward, which is their motivator. The foot soldiers, order-takers, blue-collars also need similar motivation and encouragement, for their efforts. All the individuals, the cogs in the ecosystem albeit unseen shouldn’t remain unsung.
From the software industry perspective, Pradeep Soundararajan, Founder CEO of Moolya Testing & App Achhi, shared a similar thought in his post, where he raised a pertinent question, “Why do people wait for a software release to happen and then send an appreciation email?”
Limiting recognition only upon successful and expected outcome will restrict the individuals to contain their efforts to a rote, and appreciating for the efforts will encourage them to take risks, try something new and strive towards customer delight – the key for sustained success. Let’s always appreciate for the efforts and feedback upon the outcome.
Thanks Pradeep for allowing me to cite your post.
Image credit: pixabay.com
Note: Same article is also posted in Linkedin
